


Try As He May

by Gootbuttheichou



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Jean's Birthday, M/M, Marco is shit in the kitchen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-25 00:17:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3789562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gootbuttheichou/pseuds/Gootbuttheichou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marco tries to bake a cake for his boyfriend's birthday. Keyword: tries.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Try As He May

**Author's Note:**

> pretty much set in the JAPCA/CAGYL verse.
> 
> I have a [twitter](https://twitter.com/gootbuttheichou) and a [tumblr](http://gootbuttheichou.tumblr.com/)

Marco loves Jean.

Marco loves his boyfriend, which is why he is desperately trying to think of _something_ special to do for him. They’ve been together nigh on four years now, and it’s the first time they’ll be celebrating Jean’s birthday in the apartment they rent and live in together. Which is why Marco wants to do something.

Specifically, he wants to make a meal for Jean.

The only problem is, he can’t cook.

He’s almost glad Jean had (begrudgingly) agreed to a get together with all their friends this weekend so that they wouldn't see the current state he’s in.

It’s almost comical, considering that his mother is Italian and a goddess in the kitchen, that Marco has such a difficult time not burning down the kitchen each time he tries to cook something on the stove or in the oven.

But he’s not going to let that deter him today. Besides, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again- right?

He tries to ignore the past six times he attempted to make something in their apartment, and the unfortunate occasions he set the fire alarm off whenever he cooked in the dorms.

He also tries to ignore the definition of insanity- repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Marco shakes his head as he pulls the items he needs out of the fridge, thankful that he was able to get out of classes early today so he had time to go shopping for ingredients. Once he turns the oven on to preheat and slips his apron on, Marco slaps his cheeks.

“Okay, Bodt! You've got this! You’re going to bake this cake, and Jean is going to have a happy, relaxing birthday. Right. Yeah.”

Reading over the recipe he has pulled up in his web browser, Marco starts by measuring the flour, but as he’s measuring the final three fourths of the cup, their cat jumps up onto the counter, one of his paws landing on the keyboard of the laptop and exiting out of the tab.

“Ah, Tiger! No no, sweetie, I need that!” He frantically shoos the tabby away and pulls the tab back up, frowning at his measuring cup and then looking to Tiger with a confused expression.

“Um… what cup was I on?”

Tiger only blinks and licks his chops as his tail swishes, and Marco looks back to the measuring cup as he scratches the back of his head.

“… There’s only half a cup left, so I think I just need to finish this off!” He measures it and dumps the cup into the bowl, then pulls up the tab again before he measures and adds baking powder and the salt together with the flour and whisks it.

He sticks his tongue out as he measures and pours two cups of sugar, but he jerks back when he hears a loud crash coming from the living room, and he rushes in to see that Tiger has knocked over their small potted cactus for the second time this week.

“Oh, goodness. What are we going to do with you?” Marco says with an exasperated but fond shake of his head, and by the time he’s cleaned it up, the preheat alarm goes off, and Marco runs frowns at the oven.

“Mhm… I don’t know if it’s a good idea to leave it on. I’m sure it’ll still be warm enough when I’m ready to put it in, though,” he mutters to himself as he turns the oven off. “If not, I can just turn it a bit higher, I guess!”

He turns back to the sugar, lips pursing in a frown. “Gosh… I think I needed one more cup of sugar!” Once he adds the third cup and measures and adds the butter and oil in another bowl, he sticks his tongue out as he beats the mixture with an electric mixer, then adds five eggs, frowning as he mixes that in with the vanilla.

“Jeez, is mixing cake mix always this hard?” He shakes his head and adds the dry mixture, milk and sprinkles, wiping his brow once he’s finished with the task. As he turns the oven back on to 360 degrees and pours the batter into the pan, he smiles to himself, mentally patting himself once he slides the pan into the oven and sets the timer to forty five minutes.

“Excellent! Should be iced and ready by the time Jean comes home!” With a tired sigh, Marco cleans the kitchen, makes sure the wine he bought for tonight is in the fridge, double checks that his present for Jean is wrapped, then hops into the shower.

—

Thirty minutes later, just as Marco finishes dressing and steps out of the bathroom, he crinkles his nose. “Is it supposed to smell like that?” he wonders aloud, starting when the lock to their front door turns and Jean steps into the apartment. “Jean! You’re home early!”

This earns a wry grin from his tawny haired boyfriend, huffing as he strides across the hallway to peck Marco on the cheek. “I sent you a text, love.”

“Oh. I must have missed it, I was in the shower,” Marco admits.

“Aw, am I sorry I missed that.” Jean pokes his tongue out as Marco shakes his head, nose crinkling as he sniffs the air and looks at Marco with slightly widened eyes.

“Hey, babe… are you making something?”

“Yep! Confetti cake for your birthday!” Marco exclaims, glancing at the timer on the oven. “Not quite done yet, though.”

“Uh… you might be wrong on that,” Jean mutters, eyebrows arching as he pops open the oven door to check the cake. “Yeah, I… I hate to break it to you, babe, but I think it’s a little bit too done,” he explains as he turns the oven off and takes the pan out with the oven mitts.

“Oh, no, really?” Marco sighs in defeat as Jean nods and demonstrates by poking a fork into the hardened mix, raising a curious eyebrow as he pulls a piece out with difficulty.

“Um… do you mind if you showed me the recipe you used, babe?”

“Yeah, it’s here on my laptop.” Marco waits as Jean reads over it, glancing down at Tiger who is weaving in between his calves with a worried look.

“Do you remember how much flour you used? Or sugar?” Marco’s brows furrow in concentration, but he shakes his head.

“Uh… no, not really.”

“… That may have been part of the problem, along with the temperature you had the oven set to. Too much flour or sugar, and the cake is too hard,” Jean explains, rubbing his boyfriend’s shoulder with a sympathetic look as Marco sighs.

“I’m sorry, Jean. I just wanted to try to do something special for your birthday and make your favorite cake for you.”

“And I appreciate that, love,” Jean says, silencing Marco with a slow and sweet kiss. “Really. But you already know that just hanging out with you is good enough, yeah?” He grins at the light dusting that flares up across his boyfriend’s freckled cheeks, and he presses another kiss to one of them, smiling into the kiss Marco delivers.

“Well… Happy birthday, Jean.”

“Thank you, baby,” Jean replies with another kiss. “C’mon, let’s go out to eat.”


End file.
